License plate and sign



Aug. 27, 1935,. J. P. MEEHAN 2,012,346

LICENSE PLATE AND SIGN Filed DeC. 5l, 1954 52 Z0 l 2a l @@Lnmwu@ Ugg@ 40 Patented Aug.u 27, 1935 UNITED STATES LICENSE PLATE AND SIGN John P. Meehan,

Los Angeles, Calif.

Application December 31, 1934, Serial No. I759,911I

3 Claims.

5 scribed in my issued United States Letters Patents Numbers 1,898,379 and 1,899,971.

In the apprehension of criminals, automobile license plates have come to play such an important role that maximum clarity and visibility must be embodied in the plates so that the license characters may be read at a glance. Such devices are, for reasons of economy, necessarily made of relatively thin plates and of light weight materials. Unless such plates have maximum rigidity, the ordinary uses and abuses to which they are subjected cause undulations, distortions and breaks of the plate and enameling, creating illusive reflecting surfaces, particularly in the sunlight or at night when an attempt is being made to read the characters under a ray of light.

An object of vmy invention, therefore, is to provide a license plate which may be manufactured economically, and in which the characters are so framed and presented in relief as to have maximum clarity and visibility, and at the same time to provide a plate which has maximum rigidity commensurate with the thickness and weight of the metal from which it is made, so as to mini'- mize distortions, marring and breaking and illusions they create.

Thus I provide a license plate having a raised medial field, and in this eld the legend and number characters are presented in relief by being embossed from the under side of the field. Around this field I provide an annular bead coplanar with the field but separated therefrom by an annular channel, and an exterior annular ange is provided around said bead. The plate is formed by embossing the flat body from the under side to create the raised bead and raised field, and the medial eld portion is embossed from the under side to create the raised characters in the field, so that initially the entire plate may be dipped or otherwise given a single color coat and then the co-planar characters in the field may be given a contrasting color by a single application of a color-coating roller.

In such signs or license plates, the raised Afield is necessarily of such size in relation to the entire plate, that the apertures provided for taking the bolts by which they are attached to the object or frame upon which they are to be displayed, must be wholly or partially within the area of the field. Thus when the plates'are mounted and as the bolt-heads are drawn inwardly by (Cl. LIII-436) tightening upon the nuts, the raised eld surface around those apertures is drawn inwardly with the bolt-head and this depressing not only breaks the enamel or other color coating, but also materially mars the plate, causes dangerous reflective surfaces and leaves the plate in such condition that subsequent further distortion and damage may easily take place. Therefore, one of the important objects of my invention is to provide a construction in which the attaching bolts may be applied without breaking the enameling on the eld or otherwise marring the plate.

Further objects and accomplishments of my invention will become obvious from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of an automobile license plate embodying my invention Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front elevation of an automobile license plate similar to that of Fig. 1 except that the attaching bolt recesses are differently placed; and

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on line 4-4 of Figs. 1 and 3.

The numeral Ill'designates a metal plate having an elevated field II formed medially thereof by embossing the plate from its under side.

Field I I has raised co-planar characters therein formed by further embossing the field portion of the plate from the under side. Those characters may typically comprise a legend I2 consisting ofthe name of the state for which the license plate isprovided, as well as-the year ofthe license such, for instance, as 19 California 36, and letters I5 and figures I6 denoting the license number, such, for instance, as A 345.

Around raised field I I and separated therefrom by a channel 2U, the bottom of which channel is in the plane of the plate body before the embossing is formed, I provide an annular raised bead 2| formed by embossing the plate from the under side thereof, said bead 2I being co-planar with the field II but lower than the plane of the raised characters I2, I5 and I6 in the field; and around bead 2l I provide a flat .exterior annular flange 25 which is co-planar with the bottom of channel 20.

Thus the combination of the flange 25, bead 2 I, channel 20, raised field I I and the raised characters I2, I5 and I6 in the field, produce a relatively strong and rigid plate which is not easily bent or otherwise distorted by ordinary abuses, and this combination also produces a much more attractive plate and one in which all of the characters are framed and clearly presented in relief so as to be legible at a glance. Also the indicia characters on such a plate may be contrasted in color fromthe remainder of the plate by the single operation of passingv a color-coating roller over the raised co-planar characters.

Around the edges and within the area of the raised field Il I provide recesses 30, here shown as four in number, but which number may of course be varied as desired, and through approximately the center of each of said recesses I provide an aperture 3l adapted to pass an attaching bolt having a head or carrying a washer. Recesses 30 are suiciently larger than the apertures 3| to accommodate the bolt head or washer` 32 (see Fig. 4), and since the bottom of each recess 30 is substantially co-planar. with the bottom of channel 20, or the lcwermost plane of the plate, the raised eld surface is not drawn inwardly when the nuts are tightened up on the attaching bolts during mounting, and consequently the eld surf ace is not marred or damaged. While I have described elements 30 as recesses in thev raised eld, they may be defined also as widened or enlarged portions of the annular channel 20, which widened or enlarged portions project into the eld and depress the field to the extent of the projection.

The plate of Figs. 3 and 4 is substantially identicalwith that of Figs. 1 'and 2 except that in Figs. 3 and 4 the recesses or enlarged channel portions here designedv as 60 are located one at each corner of the rectangular eld, as shown, and an aperture, here numbered 4l, is provided through the center of each recess to take the attaching bolt, as is the case in the devi-ce of Figs. 1 and 2.

While I have described my invention in its particular adaptation as an automobile license plate, and have resorted to Various details of form and construction in so describing it, it is obvious that my invention may take various" other embodiments and details of construction and materials without departing from the spirit thereof.

I claim:

1. In a sign device, a metal plate having: a raised annular portion adjacent its periphery, a raised medial eld portion carrying indicia characters, and a depressed channel intermediate said raised portions, the bottom of which channel forms one of the lcwermost portions of the plate; said channel having spaced enlarged portions each provided with an aperture adapted to pass an attaching bolt.

2. In a sign device', a metal plate embossed to form: a raised annular bead adjacent its periphery, a raised medial iield having indicia characters therein, and an annular depressed channel intermediate the bead and the eld, said channfl forming one of the lcwermost portions of the plate and having spaced enlarged portions through each of which is provided an apertiue adapted to pass an attaching bolt, each of said spaced enlarged portions being sufciently large to accommodate the attaching bolt head.

3. In an automobile license plate, a'flat metal body embossed to form a raised rectangular eld medially thereof and a raised annular bead separated from the eld by an annular channel, raised co-planar indicia characters in the field, and an exterior annular ange around said bead,

said eld being co-planar with the annular bead 

